Which is best Rheem whole-home tankless water heater
I would greatly appreciate experience and opinions on which of Rheem’s 27KW electric tankless heaters if the best choice for performance and durability:
A. Rheem Professional Classic RTEX-27
B. Richmond Essential RMTEX-27
C. Eemax HomeAdvantage II HA027240
D. ECOsmart ECO 27
E. Rheem Performance RETEX-27
A-D Have UAE “up to .94” and 3.5 GPM rating
E Has UAE “up to .93” and 2.7 GPM rating
The data is all from the respective products’ websites. All have same Amps and 3 heating elements. The GPM rating for E seems so much lower, that I wonder if it’s a mistake on the Rheem website.
A, B, C, & E have the same dimensions (17x17x3.625). A, B, & E have the same “Shipping Weight”, D lists 14.7 as simply “Weight,” so it may be that the units’ weights are all the same. They all have metal shells and backplates.
D is 9.25x19x4.25 and 10.9 pounds
A, B, C, & E all have “Copper” for “Heating Element” and “Heat Exchanger” and “Brass NPT fittings.”
D has “Copper Sheathed” for “Heating Element” and “Stainless Steel” for “Heat Exchanger.” It lists simple “3/4″ NPT” as the “Water Connections.” It has a polymer shell, which would explain the much lighter weight.
They all list a warranty of 5 year for leaks and 1 year for parts that is bound to the equipment, not the owner. ECOsmart also offers a “Limited Lifetime” warranty for the initial owner.
It appears to me that A, B, & C are probably the same unit, just sold to fill under different branding. E is an outlier within the same design, which I can’t explain. (See attached image)
The ECO 24 is a different animal that was a product line that Eemax originally introduced, and then Rheem bought Eemax. (See attached image)
There are significant price differences among and within the six products. Today and tomorrow, a seller on AliExpress is listing the ECO 24 $346.68, free shipping, and free returns within 15 days.
Thanks in advance for any experiences or opinions.
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Replies
I installed an ECO Smart tankless water heater (don't recall if it was the 18 or 24) at my moms probably 5-7 years ago and they love it. There was one issue where I believe the control board had to be replaced but I wasn't close enough to home to fix it so my sister replaced it and other than that one issue all has been well as far as I know and it must not have been too hard or costly to fix although it was only a few years old at that point. I sure do know it is nice to have unlimited hot water on demand. My mom did complain that it seems like the water bills actually went up after I installed it but I think that the rates just went up and not the actual usage.
If you can make the space a heat pump water heater will use a quarter of the electricity.
My Emax has been OK the flow sensor will make some sound.
I got mine off EBay new in box for 30% of retail. Often people buy one only to find they require a service upgrade they don’t want to pay for.
Today I see a 27k Rheem for $50 with what looks like shipping damage to the control knob or a missing knob. Seems like an easy fix.
Walta
In response to a question I submitted, Eemax confirmed ...
"All of these brand are now uniformly the same under the cover. As our brand have merged together, so have our products. So for example, the HA027240, the ECO 27, and the RETEX-27 as well as the RTEX-27 underneath the cover are all going to be similar."
I'm not really sure this is correct for the ECO 27, but when the one I ordered arrives, I'll look inside and report.